Last 3 months headlines – Page 1683
-
News
Ethics must be entrenched in a solicitor’s training
When I opened the Law Society’s Leadership Summit in February, I called for a debate on the future of the profession to spring up across the country. I repeated that call a few days later in the Gazette.
-
News
Old World countries must try harder on human rights
Britain should take steps to ban complicity in torture, the most senior elected official at Europe’s largest representative body said in London this week. I don’t suppose the government was too worried. It would be cruel to say that Terry Davis is not a household ...
-
News
Corridors of uncertainty
What makes the movie In The Loop (pictured) so funny is the way it portrays the chaos lurking just behind the veneer of government. Proof of its realism, if any were needed, came in a classic botch-up experienced by the Gazette last week. On Tuesday, we ...
-
News
Movers and shakers
Staff from the Manchester office of national firm Simpson Millar are setting out once again to prove that big is beautiful – if it not necessarily fast. They are donning sumo suits to wobble along the tarmac in the 10k Bupa Great Manchester Run on 17 May, to raise £2,000 ...
-
News
Staging an Inquest
Death-in-custody group Inquest is hosting Q&A sessions after two performances of the Chickenshed Theatre Company’s As the Mother of a Brown Boy this month. The production, ‘a moving and powerful piece, using dance, physical theatre, live music and multimedia to present an extraordinary story of injustice, identity and love’, was ...
-
News
Lawyer’s big news
Nearly four years after Big Brother Series Six was aired, former contestant Vanessa Layton is back… as a lawyer. And she’s not shy about it. Layton survived seven weeks in the reality TV show. Now in her penultimate year of study at law school, the 23-year-old tells us she ...
-
News
Indemnity costs can add woe to a losing party’s bill
The recent High Court case of Noorani v Calver [2009] EWHC 592 (QB) has provided valuable guidance as to the factors a court will take into account when deciding whether to award costs to a party on an indemnity basis.
-
News
Employment
Employment status – Limited liability partnerships - Members M Kovats v (1) TFO Management LLP (2) The Family Group of Companies: EAT (Mr Justice Birtles, T Motture, D Welch): 21 April 2009 ...
-
News
Sentencing
Imprisonment for public protection – Indecent photographs of children – Risk of re-offending R v Robert Lwellyn Hicks: CA (Crim Div) (Lord Justice Thomas, Mr Justice Blake, Mr Justice Burnett): 21 April 2009 ...
-
News
Marketing matters: why standing out from the crowd is important
With the recession apparently settling in for the long haul and law firms feeling the pinch, it is unsurprising that many are looking hard at what cuts can be made to outgoings to maximise dwindling profit margins and ensure as many jobs as possible are saved. One might be tempted ...
-
News
When asking ‘why’ all the time is the right thing to do
You know how it is; you tell a young child that you’re going to cut the grass, redecorate the bathroom or whatever, and you’re asked, ‘Why?’ Each answer you give is met with another ‘Why?’
-
News
Lord Hunt outlines vision for regulation
The peer tasked by Chancery Lane with reviewing legal regulation says that only ‘minor’ adjustments to the Law Society’s internal governance may be required to yield ‘enormous benefit’ for the regulation of law firms. Lord Hunt of Wirral wants to see a system of regulation emerge ...
-
News
New provider to enter PII market
The single renewal date of 1 October is not the only cause of last year’s problems with professional indemnity insurance (PII) renewals, the chairman of the Law Society’s PII working group stressed this week. Nigel Day, a partner at Manchester firm Hague Lambert, said: ‘It’s ...
-
News
After-the-event insurers seek clarity from Ministry of Justice
After-the-event (ATE) insurers are calling for a seat at negotiations about a new claims process amid fears that the question of when solicitors can take out insurance is back on the table. The Legal Expenses Insurance Group (LEIG), which represents seven insurers, has written to the ...
-
News
International environmental court plan
A new International Court for the Environment, with powers to compensate victims of environmental damage and punish the perpetrators, has been proposed by a coalition of lawyers, politicians, environmentalists and non-governmental organisations. Stephen Hockman QC, who convened a meeting last week to get the project under ...
-
News
Law Society president urged to contact Co-op on probate calls
The Law Society’s president has been asked to take up complaints that customers of the Co-operative’s funeral service business are being offered free probate advice from the firm’s legal services department. Following the Gazette’s report two weeks ago (see Gazette [2009] 23 April, 1), several ...
-
News
MPs condemn LSC for ‘insensitive’ Cardiff cuts
MPs have condemned the Legal Services Commission for failing to consult the authorities in Wales over cuts to its Cardiff office. In a report published last week, the Commons Welsh Affairs Committee said the LSC’s ‘insensitive’ failure to contact either the Wales office or the ...
-
News
Spreading ‘good news’ about the profession
The legal profession ‘is in good shape,’ according to one of HM Treasury’s top dogs. Launching a report on the future of UK financial services at a Whitehall press briefing this morning, Paul Myners, financial services secretary to the Treasury, painted a bright picture of the state of all the ...
-
News
New chair for QC panel
Professor Dame Joan Higgins (pictured) has been appointed as the new chairwoman of the Queen’s Counsel selection panel, to replace Lady Elizabeth Butler-Sloss. Higgins, 60, has been a lay member of the selection panel since 2005 and will be the third person to chair it since ...
-
News
Jackson costs review backs CFAs, alternative dispute resolution
Lord Justice Jackson today (8 May) published his much-awaited preliminary report as part of his review of civil litigation costs. Speaking this morning, Master of the Rolls Sir Anthony Clarke, who commissioned the review, said Jackson’s final proposals will be given a ‘fair wind’ by the ...